Lots to think about @theycallmedan - thanks, as always, for sharing your perspective. I feel much the same about keeping the universal reward pool while working towards layer 2 solutions, and I'm absolutely for getting rid of the curation curve.
As a long time WordPress blogger, I'm also crossing my fingers & toes & eyes & arms & legs & anything else I can cross that when @howo and @fredrikaa release the revamped & rebranded @steempress plugin for WordPress that it will be easier to onboard my WP blogging friends. At the moment, I've had a few asking me questions about Hive, and I know from those conversations that while they're interested in curating other bloggers, the whole "don't upvote in the first 3 (or is it 5?) minutes, your curation rewards take a hit if the post payout is already big, etc., etc." just hurts their brain.